


Aftermath

by Forbesfever



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I sobbed writing this, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Spoilers, potential fix it, stay away if you haven't seen IW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-04-30 23:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forbesfever/pseuds/Forbesfever
Summary: What is the next step for those left?





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> OH. MY. GOD. Marvel and the Russo brothers tore my heart from my chest, ripped it in two and then tried to put it back in my body with this movie. If you haven't seen Infinity War, pls don't read unless you want to see spoilers. I wrote this as soon as I got home from the movie, and it is how I coped. I may do a second part with the next Avengers movie if Marvel decided to reheal my heart. Like always, I own nothing that you recognize!

Steve sits there and stares at Visions body for what feels like an eternity. At some point, tears leak from his tired eyes. He feels when Natasha comes running up behind him, stopping short at the site of their friend. 

“Where is Wanda,” she asks, voice wavering. Steve just burrows his head in his legs in response, trying to take deep breaths to hold off the sobs. Natasha isn’t as successful, letting out a broken sob before beginning to dry heave. 

“Nat,” Rhodey says softly, walking over to attempt and console her as she hunches over like she is really going to vomit. She brushes off his hands, dropping to her knees behind Steve, and wrapping her arms around him from behind, pressing her head against the back of his. As the two of them hear footsteps approach, Natasha can feel Rhodey lay his hand on her shoulder and sees Thor drop to his own knees beside his teammates. 

Okoye enters the clearing in shock. The remaining Avengers are in the middle of the space, clustered around each other, with Bruce approaching the mourning group. She sees Rocket sitting on a tree trunk, looking to the space where Groot had stood moments ago “We need to,” she tried raspily, clearing her throat and continuing as the group looked up at her. “We need to go find who is left.”

Rhodey and Bruce back away from the three on the ground, waiting for them. Thor squeezes the remaining two before standing and looking down at Visions body before kneeling to gently lift his body to bring with them. Natasha gave Steve one last squeeze, before rising to stand, grabbing his arm to help him up as well. His eyes fell upon the rifle on the ground feet away, and he walked slowly to it, picking it up and turning back to the group, following them as Okoye headed out of the wooded area. 

The field where the battle began was littered with the corpses of Thanos’ army, and only a small amount of Wakandans. But the Ash is everywhere. Okoye leads them to M’Baku who is still looking around in wonder. He looks to her as they approach, and his face darkens at the expression spread across hers. “The King?” He asks gruffly, though he can assume the answer. She just nods in answer, and he shakes his own head. 

“Sam?” Rhodey questions, hoping that since he couldn’t find their friend in the clearing he was out here. 

“He was in the woods with you all,” M’Baku said, looking at them sadly as Natasha moaned, sounding as if she was in physical pain. “You should head to the palace,” he said to Okoye. “The Princess needs to be informed and prepared. We need to regroup.” Okoye nodded sharply, walking towards the lab at the top of the hill as the rest of their group followed without thought. 

Okoye entered the lab ahead of the others, seeing Shuri running around frantically with some of her other lab techs, wondering where the other half of them had gone. She turned around abruptly at the group’s entrance. “Okoye,” she said warily, stepping back at her friends face. “Where is my brother,” she asked hesitantly. 

“My Princess,” Okoye said through a thick throat. “The King fought valiantly-”

“No,” the young girl denied. “No way,” she said bumping into the table behind her in the workspace. “This happened last time,” she whispered, beginning to hiccup through sobs as Okoye approached her followed by M’Baku. “He has to be fine,” looking up to the two warriors, both of whom had tears falling down their cheeks. 

“My Queen,” M’Baku said softly. “We must find your mother, and you must be coronated to lead our people in this time of tragedy,” Shuri screamed at the words, falling into Okoye’s arms as the woman cried with her and M’Baku wrapped his arms around the devastated women. 

As the three Wakandans headed to the palace to see the Queen Mother, the others headed to the top floor of the lab to debrief. Steve waited at the back of the group for everyone to head up the stairs, and then sitting on the steps and looking down at the rifle in his lap. 

He was jarred out of his thoughts by a thud outside the lab and looked up to see Tony exiting a sip of some kind, and entering the lab. The man looked exhausted, emotionally and physically. “Cap,” he said stepping out his armor and wrapping his arms around the super soldier immediately. “Good to see you,” he said as the two clung to each other. 

“How bad,” Tony said wearily, pulling back from the embrace. 

Steve looked away, responding slowly. “The only ones left, are me, Nat, Rhodey, Thor, and one of the guardians.” He looked back at Tony, trying to ignore his face of incredulity. “You?” The soldier probed. 

“It’s just me,” the man said, staring at his shaking hands. “The others upstairs?” He asked. At Steve’s nod, the two of them headed up the stairs, to see the group sitting on couches and looking at each other blankly. 

Natasha stood at their entry and walked quickly over to wrap Tony in a hug, Rhodey close behind her. “I’m glad you’re ok,” she said into his shoulder. “Where’s Peter?” She asked, pulling back and looking behind him for the young boy. At Tony’s sob, she jerked around to look at the man as he cried into Rhodey’s shoulder. 

“No,” she moaned, looking at the sky. As tears began to trail down her face Steve wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled it into the crook of his neck as she began to sob. 

The four of them eventually joined the others on the couches, all of them staring at walls. No one knew what to do next. Nat jumped up from her spot against Steves' chest and began frantically searching the room for something. “Nat,” Bruce asked wearily. “What are you doing?”

“I need a phone,” she said, almost hysterically. “Clint, the kids, Laura. I need to find them.” It was at this point that she found a landline that still worked in the lab, and she typed in a phone number. “Come on,” she muttered into the receiver as the line rang, and rang, and rang. 

She tried that number two more times before switching tactics. She tried a few more numbers, getting more frantic with each unanswered call before she got an answer. “Matt?”She cried out in relief. “Are you ok?” The redhead turned brunette spoke with the man urgently for a few minutes, asking him to put feelers out about Clint, before hanging up the phone. She tried one last number, and after getting no answer she returned to her spot between Steve and Tony on the couch, grasping the laters hand and leaning against the former. 

The group sat there in silence until dark began to descend, and M’Baku returned. “The Queen Mother and our Queen have opened the palace up for you all to stay,” he said to them from the doorway. “If you would please follow me.” M’Baku took them to the dining room in the palace, and the group ate little, sitting in silence. The Wakandan then showed them all to their rooms. 

Steve entered his own room, barely noticing how nice it was. He set Bucky’s rifle, which he still had with him, on the counter in the kitchen before collapsing onto the couch. He shoved his face into a pillow, before screaming. The scream quickly turned into tears, and he turned over and as he cried he looked out into the darkness of the Wakandan forest. 

After laying there for some time, he heard the door to his room open. He didn’t even bother to look up as Natasha came to stand in front of him. She was dressed in sweatpants, a giant sweatshirt, and thick socks on her feet, looking much like a young child. She gazed down at him for a moment before reaching her hand out to him. 

After a moment he took it, and she guided him from the couch and into his bedroom. She pulled a similar outfit to her own from the drawers and helped him to get dressed as his body moved on autopilot. She pulled down the covers on the bed, tucking him in before joining him under the covers.

This wasn’t the first time the two had shared a bed. After he had broken their people out of the Raft, he and Sam had found themselves leaving Wakanda for Ireland, living in a small coastal town where they became friends with the locals. They had returned home from the farmers market one Saturday to find a familiar redhead eating a bowl of oatmeal at their kitchen table. 

The three of them had fallen into a routine. Moving around every few months, and usually, at least two of them would have to share a bed. Though Sam had offered many times (accompanied by innuendos and winks) Steve and Natasha usually ended up sharing, with Sam squeezing in when another bed wasn’t available. It had become comfortable for the three of them to squeeze into a bed, and as Natasha laid her head on his chest, Steve couldn’t help but think that the bed felt a little too small. 

“Did you hear from Clint?” He asked quietly, keeping his eyes on the ceiling. 

“No,” she said, squeezing his torso in comfort. “Nothing from Hill or Fury either.” Steve laid there is silence for a while, and knew sleep would be hard to come by. 

“We’re going to fix it,” he promised as she propped her head up on her hand to look down at him. “We are going to find a way to bring them all back, or die trying.” Natasha gazed at his determined face with a sad smile, leaning down and lightly brushing her lips against his. 

“There are worse ways to go,” she whispered against his lips. She pulled back and returned to her place on his chest, wrapped around him in comfort. 

Today they had lost what seemed like everything. But tomorrow, tomorrow they would fight to get it all back.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know your thoughts!!


End file.
